Sunday, December 31, 2017

Running wise it's been a good ride in 2017. I was mostly looking forward to running FatDog 120 in canada, apart from that I wanted to get a finish at TRT 100 10years after running that first time in 2007, which didn't happen, ended up DNF'ing that race.

This I ended up running lot of training miles with Bipul, it was lot of fun training together towards shared goals.

Nothing much for rest of the year, focused more on Ahana's school and her transition.

Regarding friends, Rajeev Char did yet another Ironman, Bipul had a fantastic finish at TRT 100m and BQ'ed at Charleston Marathon. Satpal Dalal had a phenomenal run of 100ks in Apr/May finishing 4 100ks in 4 weeks. I had a fantastic Trip to Fatdog with John Brooks, Shane Bryant, Laura Pyror, Chuck Amital (his family was immense help at the race)

Things I would do differently:
1. Schedule races around Rush's breaks.
2. about 4-5 races per year across the year is a good balance.

Wednesday, September 06, 2017

Spark

The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain
BY JOHN J. RATEY, M.D.

Few Snippets from the book

“To keep our brains at peak performance, our bodies need to work hard. In Spark,
I’ll demonstrate how and why physical activity is crucial to the way we think and
feel. I’ll explain the science of how exercise cues the building blocks of learning
in the brain; how it affects mood, anxiety, and attention; how it guards against
stress and reverses some of the effects of aging in the brain; and how in women it
can help stave off the sometimes tumultuous effects of hormonal changes. I’m not
talking about the fuzzy notion of runner’s high. I’m not talking about a notion at
all. These are tangible changes, measured in lab rats and identified in people.”

“In Naperville, Illinois, gym class has transformed the student body of nineteen thousand into
perhaps the fittest in the nation. Among one entire class of sophomores, only 3 percent were
overweight, versus the national average of 30 percent. What’s more surprising — stunning — is
that the program has also turned those students into some of the smartest in the nation. In 1999
Naperville’s eighth graders were among some 230,000 students from around the world who took
an international standards test called TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study), which evaluates knowledge of math and science. In recent years, students in China,
Japan, and Singapore have outpaced American kids in these crucial subjects, but Naperville is
the conspicuous exception: when its students took the TIMSS, they finished sixth in math and
first in the world in science. As politicians and pundits sound the alarm about faltering education
in the United States, and about our students being ill-equipped to succeed in today’s technologydriven
economy, Naperville stands out as an extraordinary bit of good news.”

“A notable experiment in 2007 showed that cognitive flexibility improves after just one thirtyfive-minute
treadmill session at either 60 percent or 70 percent of maximum heart rate. The
forty adults in the study (age fifty to sixty-four) were asked to rattle off alternative uses for
common objects, like a newspaper — it’s meant for reading, but it can be used to wrap fish,
line a birdcage, pack dishes, and so forth. Half of them watched a movie and the other half
exercised, and they were tested before the session, immediately after, and again twenty minutes
later. The movie watchers showed no change, but the runners improved their processing speed
and cognitive flexibility after just one workout. Cognitive flexibility is an important executive
function that reflects our ability to shift thinking and to produce a steady flow of creative
thoughts and answers as opposed to a regurgitation of the usual responses. The trait correlates
with high-performance levels in intellectually demanding jobs. So if you have an important
afternoon brainstorming session scheduled, going for a short, intense run during lunchtime is a
smart idea.”

“One of the best examples is a landmark research project from the Human Population
Laboratory in Berkeley called the Alameda County Study. Researchers tracked 8,023 people
for twenty-six years, surveying them about a number of factors related to lifestyle habits and
healthiness starting in 1965. They checked back in with the participants in 1974 and in 1983.
Of all the people with no signs of depression at the beginning, those who became inactive over
the next nine years were 1.5 times more likely to have depression by 1983 than their active
counterparts. On the other hand, those who were inactive to begin with but increased their
level of activity by the first interval were no more likely to be depressed by 1983 than those who
were active to begin with. In other words, changing your exercise habits changes your risk for
depression.”

“Duscha is an expert in cardiovascular health, but he says the same thing almost every
neuroscientist cited in these pages has said: “A little is good, and more is better.” The best,
however, based on everything I’ve read and seen, would be to do some form of aerobic activity
six days a week, for forty-five minutes to an hour. Four of those days should be on the longer
side, at moderate intensity, and two on the shorter side, at high intensity. And while there’s
conflicting evidence about whether high-intensity activity, which can force your body into
anaerobic metabolism, impacts thinking and mood, it clearly releases some of the important
growth factors from the body that build up the brain. So, on the shorter, high-intensity days,
include some form of strength or resistance training. These days should not be back to back;
your body and brain need recovery time to grow after high-intensity days. In total, I’m talking
about committing six hours a week to your brain. That works out to 5 percent of your waking
hours.”